In the context of the current mass uprising, political history has held a special significance this year. Juneteenth, the celebration of the last enslaved Africans’ emancipation – was also a painful reminder to Black America that we are still oppressed! Now, Black August, the celebration of Black revolutionary struggle even in the face of brutal imprisonment, is a reminder of a long tradition which continues today.
As the country faces crisis after crisis–an economic one, on top of a war against Black America all against the backdrop of a global pandemic–a small minority of the rich elite continues to profit off this misery, generating over $308 billion since the start of March. The pandemic itself reveals the deep legacy of the U.S. war on Black people, who are dying at roughly double the rate of whites, at the same time that 20 states deploy the modern-day slavery system in U.S. prisons to make hand sanitizer and masks.
And the fruits of this labor taste even more bitter, considering that the origins of this very same class wealth was obtained through slavery, redlining, Jim Crow segregation and outright theft. If it were not for stolen Black labor there would be no rich elite in America: this country is built off the backs of workers and oppressed people, and especially off the super-exploitation of the Black nation.
Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/revolutionary-black-resistance-has-a-long-tradition/
